SWIMMING | Bulldogs head to Boston

After posting race-winning and pool record times at Columbia last weekend, the swimming and diving teams left for Boston last night to swim at the three-day Boston University Terrier Invitational Tournament.

“Our mentality is stronger,” Pat Killian ’14 said in a previous interview after the Columbia win. “That’ll really show when we go to Boston.”

Last weekend, the men’s team clinched a decisive 178–122 win, with 24 top-three finishes. The women fell in a close match with the Lions, but Victoria Lawrence ’13 said the Bulldogs still swam well overall.

In addition to 20 top-three finishes in the meet, the Bulldogs set a pool record when Alex Forrester ’13 — who had already broke a Kiphuth Exhibition Pool record with her time of 23.24 in 50-yard freestyle — zoomed through the water to post another pool record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.13.

Looking ahead to the weekend, Andrew Heymann ’15 — who helped the Bulldogs clinch a win in the 200-yard medley relay — said that the Terrier Invitational will help the team acclimate to a different style of tournament.

This weekend’s event follows a similar format as the Ivy League Championships: preliminary “heat” matches in the morning and finals at night, as opposed to the dual meet when all events happen in a two- to three-hour meet. As a result, Heymann hopes to use this opportunity to prepare for the big Ancient Eight meet next February.

“[This weekend] should be good practice,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Jared Lovett ’13 added that the Terrier Invitational has always been a great meet to swim fast times and develop individually and as a team.

“We’re all excited about how we’ll perform and continue to improve as a team this weekend,” he said.

The women’s team will enter the tournament with three decided scrimmage wins and a close loss against Columbia. Last year the Bulldogs won three individual events and one relay event. All individual wins went to Forrester, who torpedoed through her competitors in the 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard freestyle. The Bulldog team of Forrester, Hayes Hyde ’12, Cynthia Tsay ’13 and Joan Weaver ’13 clinched the top spot in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

This year the Bulldogs are ready to race and post faster times, Lawrence said. She added that the team will wear fast suits to enhance their times so this weekend could see even better results.

“It’s exciting to see how our times are this early in the season,” she said.

Even though the diving team will not compete this weekend, Paige Meneses ’13 and captain Rachel Rosenberg ’12 came out of last weekend qualifying for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships next March.

The Bulldogs will face Columbia again as the two schools race at the Terrier. Yale will swim at Boston University’s Competition Pool starting this Friday morning. Preliminary matches begin everyday at 10 a.m. and finals at 6:00 p.m. The competition will close on Nov. 20.